5.3.3 Conservative Key Thinkers - Michael Oakeshott WIP Flashcards
What was Micheal Oakeshott’s political stance?
Traditional Conservatism
What was Oakeshott’s view on the state?
He argued the state is to prevent bad rather than create good
What metaphor did Oakeshott use to describe the state?
The nautical metaphor - “we all sail a boundless sea, with no appointed destination”
What did Oakeshott describe the job of government as being?
Builds on to his nautical metaphor: “keeping the ship afloat at all costs… using experience to negotiate every storm”
How does Oakeshott’s nautical metaphor reinforce his stance of traditionalism?
“Using experience to negotiate every storm” shows us how he believes society and the state should only act upon the experiences they’ve under gone and last history
What did Oakeshott say about tradition?
Oakeshott wrote that to be conservative is to “prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried” and to prefer “the actual to the possible”.
What did Oakeshott believe about human nature?
Oakeshott believed that humans are intellectually imperfect - political ideas are so broad and complex that we as humans are unable to grasp them.
What was Oakeshotts view on Pragmatism?
Oakeshott believed that conservatism should be pragmatic.
Instead of being highly ideological, conservatives should make practical decisions.
Oakeshott believed that the state should be maintained, but not overhauled or changed in a revolutionary way- as this would not be in the conservative tradition.
He believed that increased state intervention was a bad thing, and that changing society through social engineering was not in the conservative spirit.
What texts did Micheal Oakeshott write?
Rationalism in politics
On human conduct
